Does anyone in hip-hop require less of an introduction than Afrika
Bambaataa? Being one of the most integral individuals in not just the
creation of hip-hop, but its movement as a social force, Bambaataa forever
altered both music, and cultural, history. This is why when he speaks,
people listen, and why when RapReviews was granted time with him, we
couldn't wait to hear what he had to say.

Adam Bernard: Hip-hop, at its very beginning, was a radical creative force.
Where do you see the radical creativity in hip-hop today?

Afrika Bambaataa: It's still in the conscious, community, side of hip-hop,
with the rappers who are still making these types of songs, but these
so-called program directors, who are programing the minds of the masses of
people, are not playing all the different categories of hip-hop music. Not
just of hip-hop music, but they're not playing many different categories of
music, of old and new, whether it be hip-hop, house, techno, country and
western, jazz, rock, any musical form out there. They should be playing the
old with the new, the new with the old, for it becomes true school. That's
why so many people are turning to satellite stations, and internet radio
stations, so they can hear a variety of music, old or new.

Adam Bernard: Where do you get most of your music at this point?

Afrika Bambaataa: Basically from the internet, and certain stores that I
still go and look in.

Adam Bernard: I recently wrote about the idea of aging in a youth oriented
culture. What are your thoughts on the changing role of artists, and fans,
who are now middle aged in a culture that is driven by young people?

Afrika Bambaataa: Well, there's still a lot that's out there for them. They
still got the true school music that they can go to. Even many of the youth
who want to learn what their parents were playing, or still hear the
original true school sound, are turning to that. From many different
parties I have played around the world, I see different age brackets that
come to my events. There are many who are observing what was there from
back in the day, and then you got the elders who might get tired of what
they're hearing now, and play music from the 80s and 70s, and then you got
others who still can listen to both sides of things, and they still weed
through it, to hear the certain music that they love.

Adam Bernard: The culture used to be very "come as you are, just be
authentic." Now we have artists, from Rick Ross to Riff Raff, who take
great care in creating characters for themselves, and crafting images that
aren't necessarily who they really are, in an effort to sell albums. Have
we reached a point where this sort of thing is simply a new aspect of hip-hop?

Afrika Bambaataa: I don't think it's a new aspect of hip-hop, I think it's
more a marketing plan that people are using to try to sell what they're
trying to push. It's almost like when Prince, with every album he had he
came with a different style of dress, or look, to push the style of music
that he was playing on that album, whereas a lot of the hip-hop marketing
comes from others who sit in corporate chairs, and think, "How are we gonna
break this artist? How are we gonna break somebody that uses Auto-Tune? We
might want ten other groups that come out sounding like Auto-Tune, or we
might want somebody that takes us back into time, like Raphael Saadiq, and
we might want ten other artists to go back and sound like something from
the 50s or 60s again." It's just marketing tools that certain recording
companies use to push their artists. Then you have some artists who, once
they get power, and sell so many records, then they can have more freedom
to say and do what they want. You got some that might not want to be making
what they call gangster rappin, or be talking negativity, and they might
have used it, or some say selling out, to get where they had to get, then
they're more free to say what they want to push. You got others who are
pushing positive hip-hop, but can't get played on the airwaves because of
all the other stations that are taking payola just to push one certain
style of music. It's like a yin and a yang, a disagreeable and agreeable,
that you're fighting against.

Adam Bernard: You mentioned marketing on the one hand, but you mentioned
Prince on the other hand, who is someone who has been masterful at
changing. He even came out with the song "7" where he said, "all seven and
we'll watch them fall."

Afrika Bambaataa: And he was a master because after he put the "Slave" on
his face, and they stole his name, and he became the symbol when they
thought they were gonna wipe him out, and he drew them that ugly rock album
to get off his deal. They thought he was washed up, but he came back with
the funk and beat everybody, and sold out everybody in concert. He's the
one that really jacked up the whole industry, with bringing you back to
your freedom of independence, and cutting out the middle man. Since he did
that other artists followed suit, like Ice-T, Public Enemy, and some of the
rock groups. It has really jacked the industry now to where people are just
giving away mp3s, and it's back to how you get your fan base, and your
concerts and shows, and most of the artists who are hurting in the music
industry now are becoming DJs.

Adam Bernard: That's gonna become a pretty crowded market in a few years.

Afrika Bambaataa: It already is crowded. It's crazy. The whole music
industry has changed big time, especially since the time Prince did all that.

Adam Bernard: When you mention both marketing and Prince you're mentioning
an evil and a good, so when you look at what's going on today, is it more
of a case by case basis in regards to the artists who are creating images?

Afrika Bambaataa: Oh most definitely. It's what they feel they're gonna be
trying to push for a certain image for the time. It's the same as when we
were coming up in hip-hop. I would try to grab my punk rock, new wave,
people, people you would call Caucasians, and I would try to grab the Black
people and Latinos, and I said, well, I'm gonna dress the style of punk,
and have the punk funk, to grab that type of audience, and it did its job
for the people who wanted to hear "Looking For The Perfect Beat." At one
time rappers were all dressed in tuxedos and suits, looking like The
Temptations, and I said no, I want to come out wild, looking like George
Clinton and all that, to grab that whole funk crowd that nobody was trying
to reach. So they're different ways of how you present yourself for the
certain audience, or style, you want to grab.

Adam Bernard: What's one issue you feel is being neglected that you'd love
for hip-hop to address in 2013?

Afrika Bambaataa: Probably what they should address is the mind controlling
of people. There are others that are saying this is what it's supposed to
be, but it's not really what it is, so you're not controlling of yourself.
You had the freedom of the groups in the 60s, like Sly (and the Family
Stone), and Quincy Jones, the Beatles, and all these types of groups who
had a little more control. Even though they still had to listen to what
their managers, and certain labels, were saying, once they started getting
the power they were fighting for certain causes, to break up racism, to
feed people, to have Woodstock, and all that. Many of today, it's all made
for them, it's commercialized, it's put out there, this is what's gonna
back it into the drink companies. If you're talking hip-hop, you must have
a 40 ounce, and a blunt in your hand. If you're gonna talk heavy metal, you
must throw up the Satan sign, and somewhere you're gonna kill somebody in
your family. There's a certain image that they push under a mind control,
to be part of the matrix of stating this is the image we're giving to you
of what it is to be. If I'm throwing all this heavy rock, and metal rock,
I'm gonna give you a Marilyn Manson, and this is how he's gonna dress, and
this is what he's gonna talk about, so we're gonna get to a satanic sound.
If I'm gonna talk about kill kill kill in hip-hop, like one time when they
had Gravediggaz, and all those types, that was a vibe where that type of
hip-hop was happening, and the other one's going to a Doug E. Fresh with
"All The Way To Heaven," and (they were told) "aw, that's not too good to
talk about God and Heaven, it must be like THIS." It's all trick-nology,
mind control, and how to control the masses of the people by brainwashing,
by using the programming to put you in what style of the matrix that they want you in.

Adam Bernard: It sounds like it's also brainwashing the artists a bit,
because as you said, they don't necessarily, once they've achieved fame, go
on and do something with it in terms of being politically, or socially, active.

Afrika Bambaataa: That's why you have a lot who are nervous, that just want
to stay in the comfort zone. They don't take chances like myself, or Chuck
D, or Prince, or Madonna, or John Lennon, all those type of people who want
to bring about different changes. There are a lot who stay in the comfort
zone, and if you stay in the comfort zone they're gonna push you to the
top. They're gonna give you movie deals. If you're too much trying to help
people, they're gotta make sure you stay just like this. This is a part of
the world that we live in.

Adam Bernard: What's the most disappointed hip-hop has ever made you?

Afrika Bambaataa: The most disappointed is ... really not organizing under
hip-hop federation for the preservation of hip-hop culture, and forgetting
your egos, and trying to be organized in a state where we can push what we
want in the industry, like a big union, saying we want to get health
benefits, and this and this and that. That's the big angry part that we
haven't seen yet in hip-hop. Even after Kool Herc went through hell, and
other certain people had certain problems, you'd think people would have
been pulled together to formulate something like that. That's not even just
in hip-hop, that's with all styles of music. You're still going through
many of the issues that they had in the 50s, and 60s, and 40s. Some of the
artists who get fooled themselves, who don't study law, are still getting
taken today. That's another big thing, we don't study law. We're so much
dependent on management, but you should always get up and study for
yourself what you're getting into.

Afrika Bambaataa: Seeing people pull together for different struggles, for
making life better for other humans, and all humans, on this great planet.
I'm heavy into the universe, and our mother earth, and it's definitely
serious, and it makes you feel good when you see people relating to each
other, and ain't scared to talk to each other, speaking of science, or
what's happening on the planet, and in the planet, and outside the planet,
going to events with topics that regular people think are just too out
there to speak about.

Adam Bernard: So the moral of that story is talk to strangers.

Afrika Bambaataa: The moral of that story is speak to all when it comes to
dealing with life on the planet, so we can know how we can live better on
this planet. It's not just speaking to strangers, it's trying to understand
human beings, the mentality of human beings, how that brain really clicks.

Adam Bernard: When was the last time you had a conversation like that, that
really affected you?

Afrika Bambaataa: All the time when I travel. It's amazing when you really
travel, and you meet humans, and religious people, or people who are
non-religious who are just into the universe, and when you hear their
ideologies, or where they got something from, or what book they've read, or
what movie they've seen, it's deep.

Adam Bernard: Having been all around the world, what country, other than
America, has affected you the most?

Afrika Bambaataa: It's hard to pick that. There are so many, for different
reasons. One minute I'm all crazy with France, another I could be crazy
being in Nigeria. At another point I'm in love with Brazil, another day I'm
crazy about being in Canada, so I say the whole earth, and every part, is
amazing to see, from good to bad, and just wondering what's out there when
you look at the moon, sun, and maybe another planet jumps into your eye
mode, and out. All the stars and the Milky Way, when you look at that you
know there are planets, and they have their own stars and moon, and
whatever else is out there, so that's just deep in itself, and what's in
our ocean. Ancient species that we've never thought about, might have
disappeared, started to come back. Seeing things we've never seen before
popping up on the earth.

Adam Bernard: When they get the cameras down there deep in the ocean, where
humans can't exist, and you see those creatures ... some of those things
are terrifying.

Afrika Bambaataa: Yeah, some of them are crazy. I've even seen a fish in
other countries that looked like it had a human face. I was like what the
hell is that? It had a head like a human, and a nose and lips.

Adam Bernard: You'd have to cook that really well for me to eat it.

Afrika Bambaataa: I don't want to cook it at all. Just leave it alone. {*laughs*}

Adam Bernard: I saw a giant squid that had what looked like elbows in its
tentacles, and I was like that's too much for me.

Afrika Bambaataa: And they're talking about some mega-shark that's out
there. I never want to see that.

Adam Bernard: Moving from sharks to schools, tell me about what you have
going on at Cornell University.

Afrika Bambaataa: At Cornell we're doing lectures with all the people
there, dealing with hip-hop and the culture. They also just got a
collection of mine of over 40,000 albums that they're going to preserve,
and present for the people, and probably take around the world, with what
we gave, and other people from Wild Style (gave), and other types of things
that they are picking up from many people to keep at Cornell.

Adam Bernard: Finally, do you ever get tired of talking about hip-hop? Do
you have days where you're just like "will someone please ask me about my
favorite crock pot recipes?"

Afrika Bambaataa: Most places, even when I do a lot of college lectures,
they're supposed to be hip-hop, (but) they always go beyond that. Sometimes
you might get two or three questions that deal with that, and then the next
thing is dealing with all types of things, social science, political, and
things like that.